The Dragon of War
by DrPhilinSweatpants
Summary: An unnamed child is reborn in Remnant, with a mission to save those he now knows as his family.
1. Prologue

**So, I finally managed to get around to doing this and am going to put forth my full effort this time. I won't give up on my brainchild, and by doing this I'm only improving it.**

 **Guest FLAME reviews will not be accounted for. If you're going to yell at me, be enough of an adult to log in, so we can discuss it and ultimately benefit the story. Hopefully.**

* * *

 _ **Prologue - The Rebirth of a Dragon.**_

* * *

"Legends. _Stories scattered through time. Mankind has grown quite fond of recounting the exploits of heroes and villains, forgetting so easily that we are remnants, byproducts, of a forgotten past._

 _Some stories themselves are forgotten however, failing to leave the memories of those who spoke them before their... untimely demise. One such story is The Tale of The Four Lords. It is an old tale, older than you, I, and both of us. It tells of four immensely powerful Grimm kings, each possessing supernatural abilities, born with fake souls for the sake of ending the world._

 _The Spider Broodmother of Madness, Loki, had control over water, and using her powers caused her victims to fall to insanity, barely able to comprehend what was happening to their bodies until they were nothing but mindless beasts._

 _The Crow of Plague, Keres, infected the land with his control over air, creating massive hurricanes carrying disease, each one capable of infecting victims with every symptom imaginable and rendering their plantations unusable._

 _The Dragon King of War, Ares, plotted from the shadows, creating thousands of infighting conflicts among the kingdoms of man, which weakened the enemies of the Grimm, and empowered the beast at the same time._

 _Finally and most powerful, The Skeletal Reaper of Death, Hades, every death you have ever seen has empowered this god of gods, with the only exceptions being those killed by the other gods._

 _However, even the Grimm have conflicts, and none were a better example than these four. You see, the Lords were always fighting each other, as divine law stated that if one were to gather the power of all four, their incomplete soul would become real, and gain the right to meet the one who created Remnant itself._

 _As of now, they are long past, and nobody, apart from a small few, even remembers their tale."_

 _"Momma, that was kinda scary. Will you tell me a better story tomorrow?"_

 _"Of course, sweety, now, both of you head back to sleep, you have school tomorrow. One last thing, I must go on a mission, and I will be gone for a while. I promise I'll come back as soon as I can, or my name isn't Summer Rose."_

* * *

 **Five years prior, in another world...**

* * *

 _'So, fucking, boring.'_

The seconds on the clock in my 9th grade Biology class slowly tick by. It's only been a little under an hour, but it feels like it's been a week. I just want to leave the endless droning of my teacher, who probably shares the same desire as me. Can't blame him, guy looks like he's depressed, sounds like it too.

"As you can see-" He's thankfully cut off by the bell ringing, half the class halfway out the door before he can say goodbye.

I'm slower to get up, nearly tripping over my bag stuffed with unfinished homework and books. I make it out last, sprinting as fast as the others walk.

I thankfully manage to catch the last streetcar home, and arrive around half an hour later.

I enter the house and am immediately tackled by four feet of brown hair.

"Yay! You're home!" My little sister says, still buried in my chest, which she immediately takes notice of. "Blech! You need a shower!" She says, comically waving her hand in my direction which holding her nose.

"You don't pull your punches." I deadpan at her. "I take it 'She-who' is home?"

"You know she doesn't like you calling her that."

"You really think I care?" I retort with a smirk, to which she shrugs, nodding.

"Well, that's your head on the chopping block. But to answer your question, yes, she is."

I sigh. "Great, just what I love coming back home to."

Entering one of the back rooms, I'm confronted by a nearly sixty year old woman in a t-shirt and leggings.

I ignore what she says, half of it whining and the other half ordering, and proceed to my room right past hers. I drop my bag on the floor, the wood shaking from its weight, and fall down onto my bed.

This is my boring and cruddy life.

I'm sure you have it worse though. Besides, at least it can only go upwards from here.

Right?

* * *

 **A few hours later...**

* * *

My eyes open up, my chest hurting badly.

"What the hell is going on?" I croak out, the pain beginning to spread as various parts of my body begin to go numb. I cough, and look down to see something red.

 _'Ah shit.'_ I mentally curse, my vision starting to blur. Whether from whatever's causing this pain or tears I can't tell.

I finally connect the dots in my head.

 _'Dammit, dammit, dammit! I had so much I wanted to do! Graduate, get a job, get married, have kids, the whole nine yards! But a fucking heart attack is what kills me!?'_ I try to crawl over to my phone to call an ambulance, but a sudden rush of pain drops me down to the floor.

 _'Wherever I end up... I don't want to feel this pain again.'_

As my vision begins to fade, a bright light appears at the center, blinding me, and sending searing pain throughout my body as the white turns red. Red like roses.

No... like fire.

* * *

 **Elsewhere...**

* * *

I manage to scream this time, but I sound... younger, almost like a baby?

"Congratulations Raven, twins. One boy and one girl..."

Upon hearing those words, I try to open my eyes, and find... a hospital room? What the hell?

I shift my vision to the side, and see a woman with red eyes, and long black hair. She takes me into her arms, almost like a mother would.

"I'm your mother." She says in faint surprise to... ME!?

That was the beginning of my new life after death. My name is Lance Grey Branwen, get ready for hell.

* * *

 **Yup, that's right. Lance is now a Branwen. I (and many others) felt the whole Monty Oum thing was too dumb and cliche, so I decided to give him a different and decent backstory this time. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me with them. There is no guarantee I will answer however.**

 **If you want to help with the development of this story, please leave a constructive review, b** **ecause that's the best way to get any point across.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Time for chapter 2, started the day before I'm supposed to upload it!**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **...please be merciful.**

Narration.

 _Emphasized narration._

"Dialogue."

 _"Whispers."_

 _'Thoughts.'_

 **"Muffled speech."**

* * *

I couldn't remember any of the early events of my previous life's fifteen years, no matter how hard I tried. I thought this to be a sad thing at times, wondering what my life used to be like.

I now know that this was a blessing in disguise, because…

 _'This is fucking boring.'_ I think to myself as I lie in my crib, a plastic mobile overhead. _'How the hell did this use to entertain me?'_

Now around a week or two old, the shock of dying and being reborn is slowly starting to die down. Pun intended.

 _'Jesus, I really am a Xiao Long now.'_ I groan at my own pun, coming out as a light gurgle due to my vocal cords still being… unusable.

Hey, I'm a baby, not a pediatrician. So sue me.

Looking to the left, I saw my twin sister, Yang. A formerly fictional character, now my sister. This was insane, yet now I had to accept it as reality.

It was also incredibly awkward considering that I used to ship her with people.

 _'I feel like that's going to bite me in the ass someday.'_

Seeing as I can't do anything, I relax and ease off to sleep.

* * *

I wake up, and the sun's still not out.

What's on my mind however are the terrifying pairs of red eyes looking down on me.

 _'Holy shit!'_ I mentally scream, trying not to shout out or start crying.

She's not trying to make a move however, she's just... watching. Judging… for some reason.

"...smart." She remarks, stepping away and heading out of the room.

 _'What was that?'_ I ask myself, unable to come up with an answer.

* * *

The next few days passed without much issue. Other than a lack of control of my voice, eating habits, sleep schedule, legs and… bowel function, it was mostly normal.

I still had to act the part of an infant however, as to not raise suspicion, so I acted like my sister, who _definitely_ didn't have an additional fifteen years under her belt.

Waking up halfway into the night due to an airplane engine of a child screaming into your ear is never fun.

I also had a… unique encounter.

 _Summer Rose._

I don't know what it was, but she… unnerved me. She was odd, and seemed to shift personality when only the three of us (Yang never left my side) were in the room. However, once my dad entered the room, she shifted back to a very Ruby-like persona.

That had me thinking however.

Raven, my mother, left Taiyang, allowing Summer to step in and produce Ruby.

I'm wondering if the same thing will happen since I'm here.

"So here's my nephew."

I'm brought out of my thoughts as a lightly gruff voice speaks from directly above me, the air now tinged with the ob _noxious_ smell of alcohol.

"Qrow, don't get too close to them. I don't want you poisoning them with the ob _noxious_ smell of alcohol." Tai scolds him.

 _'God dammit, that's what I just said! Don't steal my puns!'_ I mentally shout at Tai, oblivious to the fact that he didn't hear it.

"Er... right, that would be bad." Qrow says, no longer craning over the two of us.

"You think?" Raven remarks, a tick mark appearing on her forehead.

"Now now, let's not be hasty." Summer says, quickly trying to defuse the situation. "He stopped, and nothing bad happened. So it's fine."

 _'No it's not! For fucks sake, this crib now smells like cheap beer!'_ I cough to make my point.

"See, even he agrees." Raven remarks.

I notice my sister's face start to scrunch up. _'Oh hell no!'_

I quickly blow over her face. My breath isn't much better, but admittedly, it could be worse. Her face softens, and I feel drowsy again.

 _'Right, lungs smaller than a baseball. Time for another nap. At least I won't get woken up halfway through.'_ I think to myself as I pass out.

* * *

I wake up and am immediately hit with vertigo, a slight nauseating feeling passing as the wind brushes against my face.

 _'Wait, wind!?'_

I open my eyes, various colors I haven't seen in weeks passing me by. Looking up, Raven's face is visible past her armor, a determined yet strained look on her face.

It finally clicked in my mind. _'She… left.'_ I should be surprised, but I can't, as I had a feeling this would have happened anyway.

 _'Why did she take me though!?'_

Raven dashed between the trees, her hair whipping around behind her. She eventually starts to pant however, and is forced to stop eventually, resting against a tree,

"Nine months… little physical activity… Qrow would be having a field day right now." She said,

"If I weren't pissed off, I would."

Raven quickly turns around, one hand holding her odachi, me in the other. My uncle drops down from one of the nearby trees.

"Not exactly hard to follow you, you just said why. Plus the kid's preventing you from turning into a bird." He said, grinning, before dropping said grin and glaring.

"So, why did you decide to leave? I thought you were serious about this."

Raven frowned, her grip around me tightening. "Don't kid yourself, I never intended to stay this long. The twins were just so that he was too busy to pursue me." She said.

Qrow raised an eyebrow. "Then why did you take him? I would have expected you to see him as a liability." Qrow responded.

"Well, I want to have a successor."

Qrow's eyes widened and immediately drew his scythe. "Sorry, but that's not happening. I'm not letting him turn into another murderer like the rest of the tribe."

Raven chuckled. "Attacking a woman when she has a handicap, how oddly 'tribe-like' that is."

"Don't compare me to them. I learned from my mistake, made a commitment, and stuck with it. More than I can say for you."

"You're really looking for a fight, huh?" She said, entering a stance, a little awkward due to my added weight.

Qrow giggled at the look on her face as she noted that fact.

 _'I'm not finding this amusing!'_

As the two were about to charge, a loud growling noise erupted from the nearby bushes.

A Beowulf lumbered out, the twin huntsmen deducing that their aggression between each other had attracted it.

Qrow planned to put one between its eyes, before the rest of the pack followed.

The three humans in the clearing shared a thought, _'shit.'_

"Truce?" Raven requested, prompting Qrow to chuckle.

"You asking me for help? What's next, am I going to hear about a pig getting hit with a Bullhead?"

Raven merely shuffled me in her arm, a deadpan on her face.

"...deal, but I'm doing this for the kid, not you."

Raven nodded, and charged along with her brother.

Around a dozen Beowulves approached, the alpha sticking to the back, observing the two.

They went down easily enough, Qrow's massive scythe cleaving through one, shifting back into a sword and bisecting another from head to crotch, before bending as a shotgun blast shredded a third. Meanwhile Raven was having a bit of a more difficult time, but I noticed something about her.

She was intentionally letting some get past her. To Qrow.

 _'Is she trying to kill him!?'_

 _"That should work."_ She muttered, audible only to the two of us, before turning back to the way she was originally heading, and leaping off a Beowulf into the trees.

"Keep quiet kid, we're going to be going pretty fast." She said to me, before the trees disappeared, and the bright blue sky was visible.

I then noticed the top of the trees were now below me.

Looking up, I saw an oddly familiar black bird rapidly flapping its wings to gain altitude, it's talons holding the top of the bundle I was in.

To put my current emotions simply…

'Thank god that I haven't eaten since my last change, because there is not enough fear in the world to describe how terrified I am right now!'

As more trees were becoming less visible, I also noticed Raven was beginning to slow down, and fly in more of a straight line.

 _'Oh. Well this isn't so-'_

Then she began a nosedive.

My reaction was a mess of garbled mental cries and curses.

At the speed we were now travelling, the foliage was now a sea of green, melding together to form a verdant scene as if I was looking at a ruffled bed from a level point.

It actually managed to distract me from my fears, long enough for the adrenaline rush to take its toll, and knock me out.

* * *

I opened my eyes as a shaking feeling jostled me awake. Noticing we were back on the ground, and Raven was back on the ground, I breathed a sigh of relief.

Looking around, I noticed we were still in a forest of some kind, but the foliage had begun to look different, hinting that we were no longer in the same forest.

 _'And if she's bringing me to the Tribe, we're on a different continent as well.'_ I remarked.

Eventually, we arrived in front of a large wooden gate made of sharpened logs bound together.

Raven whistled, waited a few seconds, and whistled again, a pair of masked bandits exiting their covers behind a pair of trees, a Fox and a Beetle respectively.

 **"Who are you?"** The fox asked.

"Really, you don't recognize me." She responded, a deadpan on her face.

The fox's posture relax suddenly. **"Raven?"**

"No shit, Mauve. How's Myrtle?"

"...I had my doubts, but it's really you. Hey, open the gate, Raven's home!" Mauve called up to the gatekeeper, who poked his head up and waved to Raven before pulling on a lever, the gate lowering and allowing us passage.

 **"We can catch up when my shift ends. Until then, you should check in with the chief."** He said, Raven nodding at the suggestion.

As we entered the camp, heads turned to look at us, smiling and waving, Raven reciprocating with her free hand, causing many to divert their attention to her unused arm and me by extension.

I could also hear people commenting.

 _"Is that a child?"_

 _"Quick, run to your father and tell him Raven's home."_

 _"Is that Raven!? Hey, Raven!"_

Raven waved to them as well, approaching a large tent with a red top, the guards stepping aside for her.

"Raven?" A male voice said from the back.

"Hello chief." She responded, prompting the man to heartily laugh.

"Oh come on, is that any way to greet your father?"

* * *

 **Post-Chapter Author Note**

* * *

 **So, I should probably lay some things out first.**

 **Raven is in her 20's at the moment, so she's not as mature as she in the show. Same with the rest of STRQ.**

 **Next chapter should be her meeting with the chief and Lance's first few years.**

 **If you want to help influence the story in any way, be sure to leave a review or send me a PM. The latter will be responded to within a few hours or less, and the former within a day.**


	3. Update

So... this is awkward... might as well explain.

First though, let me get this out of the way.

NONE OF MY STORIES ARE DEAD.

I fully plan on updating all of them, and maintaining a schedule afterwards.

Now, let me explain the year-and-a-half long departure.

My computer went FUBAR.

This meant I lost everything. All of the future chapters I had planned, and dozens of pilots/prologues for stories I hadn't even published yet.

This, coupled with school and a need to find a job for basic expenses and even a chance of getting my computer repaired forced me to basically give up writing until I got back on track.

As you know, this took a while.

Thankfully, I will soon be able to resume. I've been working on something during what little free time I get, and will be releasing it (hopefully) soon.

In case you were wondering, the order of updates will be NoRWBY, Dragon of War, and then REverse Time.

Additionaly, I will be looking over the chapters already posted and hopefully improve them.

I will try to have all three updated by the time Halloween is over.

For now, i ask you to be a little more patient.

If you want any questions answered (without any spoilers) then feel free to either PM me or message me through Discord at DrPhilinSweatpants#8104 .


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